Attachment of Earnings Orders.
If you cannot pay your Council Tax arrears, the local authority
can legally apply for an Attachment of Earnings Order against
you. This means that the Council can instruct your employer to
make deductions directly from your salary to pay towards your
outstanding arrears. An administration charge of £1 is made
for each transaction.
The amounts that can be deducted from your pay will depend on
how much you earn. By visiting the Bailiff
Fees section of our secure Downloads
area you will see that we are providing a chart with details of
the amount that can be legally deducted from you. The new rates
are applicable from April 2007.
Bankruptcy.
Previously, making someone bankrupt for not paying their Council
Tax was very rare indeed. Unfortunately however, it would appear
that more and more local authority are now using this method of
enforcement to recover outstanding Council Tax arrears. It is
important to note that for this to happen, the aggregate amount
of debt has to be greater than £750.00.
If your local authority is threatening you with this, our advice
would be to pay a sufficient amount to reduce
the bill to below the £750 threshold.
If proceedings are to be brought against you, you will first
have to be served with a Statutory Demand that will give you either
18 days to apply to have it set aside, or 21 days for you to pay
the full amount, after which a Bankruptcy hearing date can be
arranged. This is a most important document which must
not be ignored, and our advice would be to seek legal advice
as soon as possible.
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